It has been proposed heretofore that information regarding the operating conditions of a group of ring spinning machines in a textile mill be gathered for use in tending such machines and more efficiently managing the manufacture of yarns by such machines. For example, it has been disclosed in such prior patents as Ford et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,413; Bryan, Jr. et al U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,501 and Saunders U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,298, owned in common with the present invention, that at least one traveling unit be supported for travel along a predetermined path of travel for traversing one or more ring spinning machines and that information be gathered from detectors traveling with such a traveling unit. To the extent that the disclosures of the aforementioned patents are necessary or appropriate to an understanding of the present invention, those prior patents are hereby incorporated by reference into the present description. As will be apparent to persons skilled in the applicable arts from a study of the aforementioned patents, a data system may be provided in connection with a group of ring spinning machines which is responsive to detectors on a traveling unit for determining the condition of each machine of a traversed group of machines.
While information gathering and processing apparatus and methods of the types described in the aforementioned patents have achieved some acceptance in textile mill operations, there has existed a continuing problem of assuring proper correlation of information gathered with the specific individual machine from which the information is taken or to which the information relates. Some prior arrangements have suggested a resolution of this problem by providing only a single traveling unit for a single specific individual machine, as is illustrated for example in the specific disclosure of Bryan, Jr. et al U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,501. An alternative approach, employed where a traveling unit is shared over a number of spinning machines as in Ford et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,413 and Saunders U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,298, provides a program in a processor forming a portion of a data system which is intended to distinguish movement of the traveling unit from one spinning machine to another and, by updating a register, maintain a record of which specific individual machine is under traversal. By means of such an updated register, data gathered from a specific individual machine is properly sorted and taken into account.
As the development of such information gathering apparatus and methods has proceeded, it has been realized that difficulties and deficiencies are encountered by these two prior approaches. First, where an individual traveling unit is assigned to a specific individual machine, a relatively greater number of traveling units is required to successfully accomplish monitoring of a specific number of spinning machines, thus substantially increasing the original cost and later maintenance requirements for the information gathering system. Where an updated register is employed to identify the specific individual machine being traversed at any given time, the register conceivably can "lose track" of the traveling unit and inaccurately determine the specific individual machine being traversed. Once such an inaccuracy in determination occurs, records accumulated over an extended interval of time lose any positive value and may, indeed, become decidedly disadvantageous.